If the tax rate does fall to 10p, it'll be thanks to America

Ed Miliband has announced that a Labour government would introduce a 'mansion tax' on £2 million-plus homes

On December 21, Asher Dresner slipped a note into the box that Ed Miliband takes home with him every night.

Dresner, one of the Labour leader’s speechwriters, wrote that it was key to Miliband’s political success that he give an address setting out his view that growth would come from boosting the middle class, not those at the top.

He pointed to the decisive impact of Barack Obama’s speech on this topic on the US Presidential campaign.

Miliband, a keen follower of US politics, was gripped. He sent his brains trust away for Christmas with instructions to think about policies that would exemplify this approach.

The result: Miliband’s announcement that a Labour government would introduce a ‘mansion tax’ on £2 million-plus homes and use that to pay for the restoration of the 10p tax rate for low-earners.

The details of this policy remain, to put it mildly, sketchy.

Those close to the Labour leader concede that its value is more symbolic than anything else: it is meant to show that Prime Minister Miliband would take from the rich and give to the poor.

His would be the most explicitly redistributive government Britain has had for 40 years.

As Miliband and Ed Balls travelled to Bedford to make the speech, they prepared for how the Tories would hit back.

Their assumption was they’d attack them for not talking about the deficit. When Cameron – campaigning in Eastleigh – responded on camera without using any of his usual economic talking points, a cheer went up in the Labour leader’s office.

The Prime Minister was being forced to fight on their turf.

Labour also wants to use this policy to create tensions in the Coalition, to make the Liberal Democrats feel uncomfortable about being in bed with the Tories. The Lib Dems have pushed repeatedly for a mansion tax, only to be rebuffed.

Miliband plans to call a Commons vote and challenge Nick Clegg to back it.They have used this tactic to destabilise the Coalition before, with some success. But the Lib Dems are not planning to play ball this time.

One senior source tells me it is ‘not in our interest to allow Labour to divide us’.

Miliband plans to call a Commons vote and challenge Nick Clegg to back it

However, the Lib Dems are not unhappy the mansion tax is again at the top of the political agenda.

They also believe it will help persuade Cameron and Osborne that the Budget should result in the wealthy ‘paying more and being seen to pay more’.

And looking further ahead, one influential figure predicts that in the game of Coalition poker that will follow another hung Parliament, Cameron will have to fold and accept a mansion tax as the price of power.

Indeed, the Lib Dems are likely to go into the Election with wealth taxes the Tories will oppose, but Labour under Miliband will instinctively agree with.

The Tories, though, think that the popularity of this soak-the-rich measure will plummet when people realise their council tax will go up because of it.

They are adamant that it will require a revaluation of all homes.

If that happens and the Valuation Office Agency finds that you have added a conservatory or an extension, it is legally obliged to inform the council so it can move you into a higher council tax band.

All these taxing questions are uppermost in Osborne’s mind as he prepares for the Budget, which is only a month away.

He urgently needs something to put a spring in his party’s step, to reassure them he has a grip on the economic situation.

Part of Osborne’s problem is he doesn’t have much to work with. As one Treasury source notes: ‘Room for manoeuvre has shrunk each Budget as the growth forecasts have fallen.’

I understand that before Miliband’s announcement, a return of the 10p tax rate was on the table for the 2014 Budget. Osborne will now have to decide whether to bring that move forward.

But the battleground for the next Election is clear. It will be about who can ease the squeeze on people’s pay packets.

Tory Leader? More a Minister for paperclips

Adam Afriyie, the Tory whose leadership plotting was revealed by The Mail on Sunday last month

George Osborne rushed into his Commons office last Wednesday for a meeting with the 2020 Group of Tory MPs.

He was late and as soon as he had sat down, the meeting began.

The atmosphere, though, was tenser than you might expect.

For to the surprise of most of those present, Adam Afriyie – the Tory whose leadership plotting was revealed by The Mail on Sunday last month – had turned up.

The confident Afriyie, who is revelling in the attention his ambition is attracting, had arrived tieless, his white round-neck T-shirt visible under his open shirt collar.

But as the meeting went on, he began to shift uncomfortably in his chair as colleagues repeatedly glanced over at him. As the group discussed Civil Service reform, he kept noticeably quiet.

Then, right at the end, he spoke up. A hush fell. Osborne’s supporters stiffened, wondering if this was going to be when it all kicked off. Was there going to be a direct challenge to the Chancellor’s authority, was this going to be the moment that Afriyie set out his stall?

But when his question came out, it wasn’t a sweeping critique but an inquiry as to whether the Government should accept only electronic invoices.

It was a question of a candidate to be Minister for Paperclips, not Prime Minister.

Supermarket bosses have been ordered to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs tomorrow to explain themselves over horsemeat.

This summons follows Downing Street, in the words of one senior figure, ‘calling out the supermarkets’ over their behaviour.

A source close to Environment Secretary Owen Paterson complains that the supermarkets are ‘trying to hide behind us’.

At Cabinet on Tuesday, Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt told colleagues he had eaten horse sashimi, which is just raw horse meat, with no ill-effects

Paterson’s meeting with the food industry last week was called, in part, because one supermarket in particular was not actively co-operating with the Food Standards Agency.

Paterson is adamant that just because a product ‘is cheap you don’t get away with giving them something else’.

But the health risks posed by horsemeat remain minimal.

At Cabinet on Tuesday, Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt told colleagues he had eaten horse sashimi, which is just raw horse meat, with no ill-effects.

However, he said he wasn’t prepared to ‘do a John Gummer’ and eat a plate for the cameras.

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